Apps By Apple, South Africa Used Cars, AI-Generated Sports News, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, September 5, 2023

Apps By Apple, South Africa Used Cars, AI-Generated Sports News, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, September 5, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

KnowTechie: Apple quietly launches new website to showcase its own apps. “Quickly and quietly, Apple launched a new website for its app, named Apps by Apple, weeks before its iPhone 15 event. The new website is designed to promote the company’s in-house apps for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, and Apple TV.”

CarMag: South Africans Can Now See if Used Cars Have Been Written Off with VIN-Lookup Website. “The South African Insurance Association has launched its VIN-Lookup website, which allows the public to receive a brief description of a vehicle using its VIN to ensure it has not been previously written off.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Futurism: USA Today Owner Pauses AI Articles After Butchering Sports Coverage. “The Dispatch — which is notably owned by USA Today publisher Gannett — only started publishing the AI-generated sports pieces on August 18, using the bot to drum up quick-hit stories about the winners and losers in regional high school football and soccer matches. And though the paper’s ethics disclosure states that all AI-spun content featured in its reporting ‘must be verified for accuracy and factuality before being used in reporting,’ we’d be surprised if a single human eye was laid on these articles before publishing.”

Search Engine Roundtable: Bunch Of Google Search Interface Tests & Experiments. “There have been a number of Google Search user interface tests and experiments I haven’t been able to post yet. Being that today is Labor Day (here in the US), I figured I’d cover a bunch of them in one story – since many of you want stories today.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Archinect: The Cultural Landscape Foundation acquires photographer Alan Ward’s archive. “The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) has just announced a gift of landscape photographer and architect Alan Ward’s digital archive, a donation they say provides both the public and scholars exposure to one of the profession’s most beloved practitioners.”

ABC News: Google’s Chromebooks thrive in US classrooms but generate waste, costs, critics say. “While many classrooms have come to depend on Chromebooks, the products have shown a tendency to malfunction or fail within a handful of years for reasons unrelated to user treatment, critics told ABC News. On top of that, the Chromebooks are difficult to repair, generating harmful waste, imposing significant replacement costs and disrupting student learning, they added.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: US appeals court curbs Copyright Office’s mandatory deposit policy. “The U.S. Constitution bars the U.S. Copyright Office from demanding that a publisher deposit physical copies of its books with the office or pay a fine, a Washington, D.C., federal appeals court said on Tuesday.”

Minnesota Star-Tribune: Attorneys decry Minneapolis demands for private data in government transparency lawsuit. “A government transparency group engaged in a two-year legal battle with Minneapolis over access to police misconduct records is accusing city officials of attempting to intimidate their board members — many of whom are journalists — by demanding private data such as Social Security numbers through the discovery process.”

AFP: Half of Switzerland’s large companies have been the victim of a cyber attack. “Almost half of Switzerland’s large businesses have been the victim of cyber attacks, often with disastrous consequences, according to a study published on Monday. A report by SwissVR Monitor found that 45% of Swiss companies with 250 or more employees claim to have suffered at least one cyber attack.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

El País: Seismographs record tremors from the war in Ukraine. “In a groundbreaking paper published in the prestigious journal Nature, a group of researchers demonstrates how a seismological network designed to detect nuclear tests thousands of miles away can also pick up explosions from the war in Ukraine. There are far more of those than either side acknowledges.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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September 6, 2023 at 12:58AM
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AI Litigation Database, ED Games Expo, NREL Podcasts, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, September 5, 2023

AI Litigation Database, ED Games Expo, NREL Podcasts, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, September 5, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

The George Washington University: A Database from GW Law Informs Users on Litigation Relating to AI. “Legal scholars and others familiar with databases such as those maintained by LexisNexis and Westlaw know that they report opinions from finished cases. The AI Litigation Database tracks cases from the time they are filed. The cases are searchable by keyword, the jurisdiction in which they were filed and area of application, among other terms. Application areas include employment, intellectual property, facial recognition and many more.”

EVENTS

US Department of Education: Announcing the 9th Annual ED Games Expo. “The ED Games Expo is the annual public showcase of game-changing education technology (EdTech) innovations created through more than 50 programs at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the U.S. Department of Education (ED), and across government. The multi-day event engages a broad audience, including EdTech developers and researchers, organizations across the education ecosystem, students and educators, members of the public including families and children, and representatives and leaders from Federal agencies and offices.” The event includes both in-person and virtual components.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

NREL: NREL Launches Science and News Podcast. “Forty-six years ago, the research organization that would become the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) was born. This year, on July 5, NREL’s birthday, the laboratory launched its news podcast, ‘Transforming Energy: The NREL Podcast.’ Every other Wednesday, podcast hosts Kerrin Jeromin and Taylor Mankle provide news about research at the laboratory and the ways NREL’s work is impacting the clean energy space.”

Search Engine Journal: Google Fights Back Against Misleading Ads With New Policy. “This policy targets unfamiliar or lesser-known advertisers whose ads may have a higher risk of being scams or misrepresenting themselves. Under the new protocol, Google will limit how widely these types of ads are shown across its platforms to mitigate the potential for users to encounter deceptive advertising content.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Sierra Club Magazine: Why Did Public Lands Agencies Get Snarky On Social Media?. “Agencies from the National Park Service to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation have adopted the communication style many of us are used to seeing online to create content that both educates and entertains.”

UC Riverside: UCR California Digital Newspaper Collection receives grant to archive regional newspapers serving Black communities . “The grant will be used to digitize a collection of newspapers serving Black communities in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas between World War II and 1963. UCR’s project is part of the NEH initiative American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future, emphasizing the role of the humanities in tackling contemporary social challenges. ”

The National News: From WaterTok to IceTok, how social media is bringing ice in from the cold. “TikTok is awash with videos and posts about ice – showing different flavours, textures, shapes and freezing methods – with videos of people creating different moulds viewed in their millions. Starbucks made headlines in May when it announced plans to switch from cubes to nugget ice, sparking an online discourse about the merits of smaller pellet shapes over blocks and how it affects the quality of cold beverages.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Guardian: Twitter accused of helping Saudi Arabia commit human rights abuses. “The social media company formerly known as Twitter has been accused in a revised civil US lawsuit of helping Saudi Arabia commit grave human rights abuses against its users, including by disclosing confidential user data at the request of Saudi authorities at a much higher rate than it has for the US, UK, or Canada.”

404 Media: Hackers Can Silently Grab Your IP Through Skype. Microsoft Is In No Rush to Fix It. “Hackers are able to grab a target’s IP address, potentially revealing their general physical location, by simply sending a link over the Skype mobile app. The target does not need to click the link or otherwise interact with the hacker beyond opening the message, according to a security researcher who demonstrated the issue and successfully discovered my IP address by using it.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Centre for Economic Policy Research: The effect of copyright on the digitisation and availability of visual artworks. “This column exploits a change in copyright protection in the US to examine how copyright affects the digitisation and distribution of artworks over the internet. The authors find a strong increase in online image availability for original artworks that move into the public domain. Analysis of worldwide Google image search data reveals that digital artwork surrogates made available online are heavily reused downstream, suggesting they are of measurable high public and commercial value.”

North Carolina State University: An ‘Introspective’ AI Finds Diversity Improves Performance. “An artificial intelligence with the ability to look inward and fine tune its own neural network performs better when it chooses diversity over lack of diversity, a new study finds. The resulting diverse neural networks were particularly effective at solving complex tasks.”

Stanford University: Two Tessier-Lavigne papers retracted on his last day as president. “Prominent journal Science issued retraction notices for two high-profile Marc Tessier-Lavigne papers today, the same day his tenure as Stanford’s 11th president officially ends. Tessier-Lavigne, who had previously defended the studies that have now been withdrawn, acknowledged that the research contained manipulated data in the notices.” Good morning, Internet…

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September 5, 2023 at 05:31PM
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UK Intellectual Property Office, Reddit Content Moderators, Museum of Classic Chicago Television, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, September 4, 2023

UK Intellectual Property Office, Reddit Content Moderators, Museum of Classic Chicago Television, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, September 4, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

UK Government: Powerful new search tool will help IPO maintain patent quality. “‘SEARCH’ is based on the state-of-the art patent search tool developed and used by the European Patent Office (EPO), widely regarded as the best such tool in the world. The IPO has worked with the EPO to develop ‘SEARCH’ as the national office version. The IPO is the first national IP office to implement the tool when conducting patent searches, and is already experiencing the benefits.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Ars Technica: Reddit faces content quality concerns after its Great Mod Purge. “Did you know that improper food canning can lead to death? Botulism—the result of bacteria growing inside improperly treated canned goods—is rare, but people can die from it. In any case, they’ll certainly get very ill. The dangers of food canning were explained to me clearly, succinctly, and with cited sources by Brad Barclay and someone going by Dromio05 on Reddit (who asked to withhold their real name for privacy reasons). Both were recently moderators on the r/canning subreddit and hold science-related master’s degrees.”

TorrentFreak: TV Museum Will Die in 48 Hours Unless Sony Retracts YouTube Copyright Strikes. “Rick Klein and his team have been preserving TV adverts, forgotten tapes, and decades-old TV programming for years. Now operating as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, the Museum of Classic Chicago Television has called YouTube home since 2007. However, copyright notices sent on behalf of Sony, protecting TV shows between 40 and 60 years old, could shut down the project in 48 hours.”

Bloomberg: Big Tech firms bracing for EU’s biggest antitrust crackdown; Apple, Alphabet, Meta likely to be affected. “Big Tech is bracing for the European Union’s biggest ever clampdown on anti-competitive practices in the digital economy, potentially provoking a new wave of legal battles between regulators and Silicon Valley. By Sept. 6, antitrust regulators will announce a list of services likely to include Alphabet Inc.’s Google Search, Apple Inc.’s App Store, Amazon.com Inc.’s marketplace and Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook, to be targeted by rules aimed at preventing the most powerful firms from wrecking new markets before it’s too late to act.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Chess .com: How A Bolivian Junior Chess Champion Became A Social Media Star. “WCM Alexandra Prado, also known as AlexandraChess, is the mind behind some of the internet’s most-viewed chess content, with hundreds of thousands of followers across different platforms. How did a young chess champion from Bolivia become one of the world’s most-followed chess influencers? Read her story to find out!”

New York Times: We Used A.I. to Write Essays for Harvard, Yale and Princeton. Here’s How It Went.. “While the chatbots are not yet great at simulating long-form personal essays with authentic student voices, I wondered how the A.I. tools would do on some of the shorter essay questions that elite schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Dartmouth are requiring high school applicants to answer this year. So I used several free tools to generate short essays for some Ivy League applications. The A.I. chatbots’ answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

NBC News: Ruby Franke, Utah family YouTuber, arrested on abuse charges after malnourished child in duct tape is found. “Ruby Franke, the Utah mom behind the now-defunct family YouTube channel ‘8 Passengers,’ was arrested Wednesday on child abuse charges after authorities found a malnourished minor with open wounds and duct tape on their extremities, officials announced.”

WWLP (Massachusetts): Private investigators seek new record access law. “A bill before the Joint Committee on Transportation would allow licensed private investigators and detectives to digitally access records managed by the Registry of Motor Vehicles. Industry experts say they are already legally entitled to this information under the Driver Privacy Protection Act, but must go in-person to the registry where they sometimes end up waiting for hours alongside those renewing their license or scheduling a road test.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Daily Dot: Is it fair to film people with dementia and put it on TikTok?. “While many of the parents shown in these videos are consenting to being filmed—or, at least to videos of them being posted—some TikTokers film their parents with dementia reacting to gimmicks or just going about their day. Dementia is the umbrella term for diseases that can develop with age that result in the loss of cognitive functioning, like retaining memories or even being able to take care of oneself.”

UCLA: Bringing the history of L.A. workers’ movements into the present – and future. “A course being developed by UCLA labor studies professor Tobias Higbie will aim to inspire a new generation of change-makers.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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September 5, 2023 at 01:00AM
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WWII Romani Genocide, Southern Baptist Convention, National Diet Library Japan, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, September 4, 2023

WWII Romani Genocide, Southern Baptist Convention, National Diet Library Japan, More: Monday ResearchBuzz, September 4, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

New York Times: An Effort to Focus on Long Overlooked Roma Suffering in the Holocaust. “As many as a half million Romani people were killed by the Nazis, according to one estimate. A new database tells the story of that genocide and its impact on individual lives.”

The Oklahoman: Southern Baptist Convention task force says development of sex abuse database continues. “A Southern Baptist Convention task force said it is in the midst of the vetting process for a highly anticipated database of sex offenders. The Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force shared its progress on Thursday as it unveiled a new website aimed at preventing sex abuse and rooting out predators within the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. The task force said the new website, sbcabuseprevention.com, is an ‘online hub for abuse prevention resources’ across the denomination.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

National Diet Library (Japan): Integration of the NDL Online and NDL Search web services. “The National Diet Library, Japan, (the NDL) plans to integrate two of its current web services: the National Diet Library Online Search and Request Service (NDL Online) and the NDL Search. These two will be launched as a new NDL Search web service in January 2024.”

Vivaldi: Massive code refactoring brings speed to Vivaldi. “Our new version on desktop – Vivaldi 6.2 – is now faster, especially when you open a new window. By rendering browser windows through React portals, we’ve unlocked new possibilities, reduced memory usage, and significantly improved overall performance.”

TechCrunch: The fall of Babylon: Failed telehealth startup once valued at $2B goes bankrupt, sold for parts. “It’s the end of the road for Babylon Health, the London telehealth startup once valued at nearly $2 billion after being backed by the likes of the founders of DeepMind and deep-pocketed health insurance companies. After the company’s U.S. shares became worthless and its operation turned insolvent earlier this month, last night, the U.K. subsidiary of the business formally went into administration. At the same time, the administrators sold a large chunk of its assets to eMed Healthcare UK, a new subsidiary of U.S. company eMed.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Wall Street Journal: In Exile in Berlin, Ukrainian Artists Confront the War. “Like many other Ukrainian artists, [Vlada] Ralko and [Volodymir] Budnikov are processing the trauma of Russia’s aggression while in exile in Berlin. Some 1.2 million Ukrainians have poured into Germany since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, and the capital, where about 10% of the refugees live, has become a hub of Ukraine’s cultural diaspora. Visual artists, performers, writers and filmmakers are responding to the war while helping to change the perception of Ukrainian art and culture.”

NBC News: Ads for AI sex workers are flooding Instagram and TikTok. “Facebook, Instagram and TikTok have tried to keep a tight lid on sexualized content in recent years, banning nudity outright in almost all cases, kicking off sex workers and even cracking down on some artists and educators who speak frankly about sexual health and safety. But a new kind of sexualized content has lately been getting through their moderation systems: ads for scantily clad and dirty-talking chatbots, powered by what their creators say is artificial intelligence.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Associated Press: New York police will use drones to monitor backyard parties this weekend, spurring privacy concerns. “Those attending outdoor parties or barbecues in New York City this weekend may notice an uninvited guest looming over their festivities: a police surveillance drone. The New York City police department plans to pilot the unmanned aircrafts in response to complaints about large gatherings, including private events, over Labor Day weekend, officials announced Thursday.”

Washington Post: Trump’s Truth Social facing a key funding deadline. “With the merger stalled for months, Digital World is fast approaching a Sept. 8 deadline for the merger to close and has scheduled a shareholder meeting for Tuesday in hopes of getting enough votes to extend the deadline another year. If the vote fails, Digital World will be required by law to liquidate and return $300 million to its shareholders, leaving Trump’s company with nothing from the transaction.”

Slate: The Volunteer Moms Poring Over Archives to Prove Clarence Thomas Wrong. “[Jennifer] Birch is one of about 20 volunteers with Moms Demand Action, part of the gun safety group Everytown, who are scouring archives across the United States for historical firearm regulations. The project is far from academic.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Kansas: Influential ‘Instavangelists’ Blur Line Between Religion And Social Media. “Social media has radically changed the way we do things, from communicating to purchasing to learning to voting. But according to a new article, it’s also transformed the way we define religion — particularly among women.”

The Register: What happens when What3Words gets lost in translation?. “What3Words, the website and app that translates physical coordinates into short memorable combinations of words, has been praised and criticized over the years. Now a computer scientist at the University of Exeter in the UK has formally described in a paper how confusion can arise from the geocoding algorithm used by What3Words, and questioned its fitness for directing emergency services to incident locations.” Good morning, Internet…

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September 4, 2023 at 06:04PM
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Youth Justice Interactive Dashboard, California Legislation, TikTok, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, September 3, 2023

Youth Justice Interactive Dashboard, California Legislation, TikTok, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, September 3, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

UK Authority: Wales gets data dashboard on youth justice. “The Youth Justice Interactive Dashboard has been made available by the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales, providing data around 10-17 year-olds who offend, on topics including the nature of their offences, outcomes and relevant indicators on issues such as accommodation, education and mental health.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Bloomberg: Tech Industry Dodges California Social Media Addiction Bill. “Legislation aiming to hold social media platforms liable for addiction and other harms (S.B. 680) to child users was killed by a key committee Friday, the second year in a row this has happened.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The Messenger: TikTok Scrubs 284 Accounts Tied to Chinese Disinformation Campaign . “TikTok has removed 284 accounts associated with a Chinese disinformation campaign after the Guardian Australia reported on their existence. The ByteDance-owned social media platform removed the accounts in the same week that Meta’s Facebook and Instagram claimed to have removed roughly 9,000 accounts associated with a Chinese disinformation campaign focused on Australia and a few other countries.”

TechCrunch: Google pulls popular but controversial live video chat app Chamet from the Play Store. “Google has removed popular but controversial live video chat app Chamet from the Play Store. The company confirmed the move to TechCrunch, saying that the app violated its user-generated content (UGC) policy.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

404 Media: Scientologists Ask Federal Government to Restrict Right to Repair. “The organization that represents the literary works of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard has filed a petition with the Federal Government, asking it to make it illegal to circumvent software locks for the repair of a highly specific set of electronic devices, according to a letter reviewed by 404 Media. The letter doesn’t refer to any single device, but experts say the petition covers Scientology’s ‘E-Meter,’ a ‘religious artifact’ and electronic that is core to Scientology.”

New Voice of Ukraine: Drone operating now part of ‘Defense of Ukraine’ classes being piloted in Lviv. “War has changed the way Ukrainian schoolchildren study, as can be seen by at least one class in Lviv, who spent their first day back to class learning how to operate unmanned aerial drones (UAVs), as seen in photos published by Lviv mayor, Andriy Sadovyi, on social media on Sept. 1.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

9to5 Google: Google Now was the better phone assistant, no AI or LLMs needed. “Google’s in-progress plan to revitalize Assistant is by infusing it with LLMs (large language models), starting on mobile, which should mean Android. Hopefully that ‘supercharged Assistant’ will be able to analyze what’s on my screen, find dates/times/locations, and offer to save it in Google Calendar for me. It’s ridiculous, however, that we had that functionality 6-7 years ago and didn’t need the bleeding edge in computer science to get it.”

North Carolina State University: Potential Employers View Job Candidates Differently If They Post Online About Mental Health. “It is increasingly common for people to discuss mental health challenges on social media platforms, but a new study finds these disclosures can affect the way potential employers view job applicants.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

University of Maine: UMaine IMRC uses its tools to preserve historic fly rods — including Teddy Roosevelt’s. “Fly fishing is an essential piece of Maine’s history and culture. The artists at the University of Maine’s Innovative Media Research and Commercialization (IMRC) Center knew this when they were approached with the task of using the tools at their disposal to help Thomas Rod Co., a historic fly rod maker based in Brewer, preserve and recreate its legacy designs — including the one personally used by President Theodore Roosevelt over 100 years ago.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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September 4, 2023 at 12:27AM
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Illinois Child Welfare, MayoTerrace Online Museum, Beescape, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, September 3, 2023

Illinois Child Welfare, MayoTerrace Online Museum, Beescape, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, September 3, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

State of Illinois: Illinois DCFS Launches Child Welfare Dashboard and Study of Child Protection Services to Increase Transparency and Accountability. “The Illinois Child Welfare Insights Tool is the latest innovation supported by the Pritzker administration at DCFS, which is responsible for investigating reports of suspected child abuse and neglect; licensing Illinois’ childcare centers, adoptive and foster homes, and adoption agencies; and providing community resources to families experiencing social and economic hardships. The launch of this new Insights Tool marks the first time that Illinois residents, child welfare advocates and the families receiving these services have near real-time access to information used by DCFS administrators.”

New-to-me — an online mayonnaise museum you can visit virtually. “If you won’t be exploring Japan anytime soon, interactive MayoTerrace online museum tours can be reserved for free and are conducted over Zoom. You’re sure to get some brilliant mayo-centric ideas for your next meal, and might even be inspired to make a permanent home for Kewpie Mayo in your pantry.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Penn State: New updates come to ‘Beescape,’ an online tool for supporting pollinators. “Beescape is a mapping tool that allows users to highlight a particular location or area and get information about the habitat quality for bees. The updates include several changes to make the website more interactive and user-friendly, based on feedback given by stakeholders including growers, beekeepers, scientists and conservationists.”

CTV News: Online News Act could see Google, Meta pay combined $230 million to Canadian media. “Federal officials estimate Google would need to offer $172 million and Facebook $62 million in annual compensation to satisfy criteria they’re proposing be used to give exemptions under the Online News Act, a bill passed over the summer that will force tech companies to broker deals with media companies whose work they link to or repurpose.”

USEFUL STUFF

New York Times: Use Your Phone as a Pocket Tutor for Study on the Go. “Autumn is edging closer, and the return to a more regular office schedule looms for many people — and with it, the waiting time for transportation, meetings and appointments. Games, reading, social-media scrolls or just zoning out are common ways to spend these spells, but if you want more mental stimulation, why not boost your brain with brief lessons in subjects that interest you? Here’s a guide to finding Android and iOS apps that turn your smartphone into a traveling pocket tutor.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

BGR: This generative AI game development tool looks absolutely ridiculous. “The world of generative AI is getting bigger with every passing day as more developers find new ways to utilize AI prompts. Perhaps one of the most ridiculous I’ve seen so far, though, is Hiber3D, a new tool that uses Google’s generative AI to create entire worlds using simple prompts like you’d see used in ChatGPT.”

Sports Illustrated: NBA Referee Eric Lewis Retires Amid Probe Into Social Media Activity. “Former NBA referee Eric Lewis has informed the league that he’s retiring from his duties as an official effective immediately, per a statement released from the league’s office of communications on Wednesday. Lewis had been the subject of an investigation involving his social media activity following allegations that he operated a burner account on X, formerly known as Twitter, which frequently posted in defense of himself and other NBA referees.”

Rolling Stone: Elon Musk Wades Deeper into Antisemitic Propaganda. “On Thursday, a number of accounts began tweeting #BanTheADL, calling on Musk to remove the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) from the site. The ADL is a civil rights organization focused on combating antisemitism and extremism. Momentum for the action seems to have been stirred by a meeting earlier in the week between the ADL’s national director, Jonathan Greenblatt, and Linda Yaccarino, in which the pair discussed how to curb the hate and toxic propaganda that have flourished on X ever since Musk’s takeover last year.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Europol: Qakbot botnet infrastructure shattered after international operation. “Europol has supported the coordination of a large-scale international operation that has taken down the infrastructure of the Qakbot malware and led to the seizure of nearly EUR 8 million in cryptocurrencies. The international investigation, also supported by Eurojust, involved judicial and law enforcement authorities from France, Germany, Latvia, The Netherlands, Romania, United Kingdom and the United States.”

SF Gate: Injured person reportedly dies after Cruise cars block first responders. “On Aug. 14, two stalled Cruise vehicles delayed an ambulance from leaving the scene of a crash in which a driver had hit a pedestrian with their car, according to reports from the San Francisco Fire Department. The pedestrian later died of their injuries, which first responders linked to the delay in getting them to the hospital.”

Reuters: U.S. judge approves payouts from Elon Musk’s SEC settlement. “A federal judge on Friday authorized the payout of $41.53 million to investors who lost money when Elon Musk tweeted about taking his electric car company Tesla (TSLA.O) private. Payouts will come from a ‘fair fund’ created under a settlement between Musk and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, arising from Musk’s August 2018 post on Twitter that he had ‘funding secured’ for a Tesla buyout.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Architect Magazine: Materials Science Is Starting to Reap the Benefits of AI. “Scientists have begun exploring the use of AI tools to automate a variety of tasks that are typically time-consuming, including manual endeavors such as identifying relevant references or potential compound ingredients. Remarkably, researchers have also begun employing AI to discover new materials and develop current material compounds in previously unexplored ways.” Good morning, Internet…

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September 3, 2023 at 05:28PM
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Reporting UAPs, Lafayette College Creative Writing, Google, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, September 2, 2023

Reporting UAPs, Lafayette College Creative Writing, Google, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, September 2, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Space: Pentagon UFO office unveils official website for US government personnel to report sightings. “The All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) unveiled the new website on Wednesday (Aug. 30). According to a note from the office’s director, Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, the website will be used to inform the public about ARRO’s findings as well as offer a way for the public to report sightings of UFOs or, as they’re now called, unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP).”

Lafayette College: New Digital Collections Launch This Fall. “The 138 digitized issues of The Marquis document the history of student creative writing at Lafayette College through poetry, prose, and humor pieces from the post-WWII era to recent years and offer snapshots of student life and perspectives over the last 75 years on College Hill.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Google now blurs explicit imagery in Search results by default. “Google is finished rolling out its new SafeSearch feature that blurs explicit imagery, such as violent or sexual photos, by default. The company announced back in February that it would be rolling out the change later this year, and has now confirmed in a blog post that it is available to everyone.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Quartz: Google’s new AI-powered search results are ripping off news sites. “Earlier this year, as part of its experiments with artificial intelligence, Google released a new search feature that provides an AI-generated overview of search results. The idea is to get users to their answers faster, without needing to leave the search results page. Google says the AI-generated digests use key points from news articles that are not behind a paywall. Critics say the summaries amount to theft, and could incentivize media organizations to put more of their work behind paywalls.”

Apple Insider: Apple is eliminating the social media support roles from Twitter and others. “The official @AppleSupport account was launched in 2016, and it’s primarily used to provide tips for Apple products and address customers directly. The account earned an award from Twitter that same year, thanks to its high level of engagement. However, according to sources speaking to MacRumors, that will be coming to an end. The report states Apple is planning to eliminate its social media support advisor roles available on Twitter/X, YouTube, and the Apple Support Community forum.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

5 News: Social Media Safety Act blocked by Arkansas judge. “A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked Arkansas from enforcing a new law that would have required parental consent for minors to create new social media accounts, preventing the state from becoming the first to impose such a restriction.”

404 Media: I Tracked an NYC Subway Rider’s Movements with an MTA ‘Feature’. “During all this monitoring, I wasn’t anywhere near the rider. I didn’t even need to see them with my own eyes. Instead, I was sitting inside an apartment, following their movements through a feature on a Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) website, which runs the New York City subway system.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

PR Newswire: One in five social media users consider themselves an influencer or content creator (PRESS RELEASE). ” One in five (19%) social media users consider themselves to be content creators (10%) or influencers (9%), according to new Mintel research. This number increases to 28% for Gen Z social media users as 11% consider themselves to be influencers and 17% content creators. Meanwhile, three-quarters (76%) of self-proclaimed influencers are living the social media dream by earning enough money from content creation and advertising to support themselves without other work.” That’s… not what I would have expected.

PsyPost: A new mouse maze emoji to increase scientific representation on social media?. “A brief focal point article published in Lancet Neurology questions whether implementing a mouse maze emoji could prove useful in representing the advances made in neuroscientific research. Emojis are small digital icons that are used in digital communication, often conveying emotion or context that may be missing in conversations over text.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Meredith College: New Historical Marker to Recognize Work of Human Computers. “An event celebrating a new historical marker in downtown Raleigh commemorating the women who worked as ‘human computers’ for the U.S. space program and military will be held on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023, at 10:30 a.m. at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Meredith College alumnae are among the women whose work is recognized with this new marker.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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September 3, 2023 at 12:38AM
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